Prince Harry’s personal heroes named among his VIP guests
HE HAS spent years as their loudest and most famous champion, taking their causes and putting them on the world stage with a cheeky comment or a photo opportunity.
A week today, they will get a unique opportunity to show their gratitude as Prince Harry invites his personal heroes to his wedding, from the stars of Invictus to the man who taught him how to blindfold a rhino.
Representing the Invictus Games will be Dave Henson – whose popcorn -pinching daughter Emily stole the show in Toronto – and David Wiseman, former team captains who have helped the Prince build the competition for wounded and sick veterans, JJ Chalmers, now a broadcaster, and CEO Dominic Read.
Jaco Van Gass, who first met Harry at Headley Court after being wounded in Afghanistan in 2009 and has gone on to trek to the North Pole and attempt Everest, will also be there. Van Gass, who lost his left arm after sustaining lifechanging injuries in Afghanistan, said: “Harry is very aware of his influence and he’s decided willingly to use that to the best of his ability by doing good… It means a great deal for charities and people who need help: if he puts his name to it there’s a reaction, so it’s fantastic that he’s doing this.”
Map Ives, the trailblazing director of Rhino Conservation Botswana, will be there to support the Prince, who has regularly joined his team to learn to tag rhinos to help save them, as well as trustee Kai Collins.
Martin Colclough, head of recovery for Help for Heroes, has been granted the exclusive invitation, along with Colin Dyer of Wellchild and Catherine Ferrier and Johnny Hornby from Sentebale. Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, cofounder of Sentabale and brother of the country’s king will be among the high and mighty, but the other end of the spectrum is also represented with the head of a tiny, little-known Welsh charity Dolen Cymru, which builds literacy and links with Lesotho.
Several friends said that the top-secret guest list had left them with their own small conundrum, nervous to ask mutual friends if they had been invited just in case they had been left out.